Page 35 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

EE|Times EUROPE 35

MARKET & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Improved Position Accuracy for GNSS Services

By Wolfgang Patelay

ccurate position data is essential in a
multitude of mobile applications but espe-
cially for autonomous vehicles. A young
A company offers GNSS correction services
to enable fast and reliable delivery of precise posi-
tion data in a variety of markets.
Sapcorda announced that testing of its first
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) aug-
mentation services for the L-band is underway in
North America and Europe, laying the foundation
for a planned December launch of a strong and
reliable (99.9% service availability) GNSS aug-
mentation signal for safety-critical navigation in
autonomous vehicles and machinery.
Bosch, Geo++, Mitsubishi Electric, and u-blox
founded Sapcorda in 2017 as a joint venture to
enable precise and reliable GNSS service. The com-
pany’s name stands for Safe and Precise Correction
Data Services and describes exactly its purpose: to
provide correction services for GPS and GLONASS
satellite systems in order to improve positioning
accuracy. Support for GALILEO and BeiDou is
planned soon. Schematic representation of the SAPA services, which improve global positioning
“We are the only service worldwide that can accuracy (Source: Sapcorda)
offer a solution tailored to mass-market applica-
tions,“ Botho Graf zu Eulenburg, CEO of Sapcorda,
told EE Times Europe. The solution “provides the correction data in The SAPA services are hardware-independent and can be used with
an open, industry-driven format at the lowest bandwidth to retrieve all GNSS receivers and GNSS chips. The continued development of
high-precision position accuracy in receiver chips to optimize cost/performance now allows the design
convergence times below of low-cost GNSS systems with highly precise positioning. Sapcorda
30 seconds,” he said. designed its solutions to address automotive, mobile autonomous, and
The company offers a B2B busi- mass-market applications — markets that demand high data availabil-
ness model to GNSS manufacturers, ity, compliance with functional safety, and efficiency in submitting the
system integrators, and OEMs. It data to the rover, but also the processing of that data on low-cost chips.
operates globally and owns offices in Traditional correction services can achieve the same performance but
Germany (Berlin and Hannover) as require quite a long time to retrieve the respective accuracy.
well as in the U.S. (Scottsdale,
Arizona). “It is very important for OPTIMIZED COMMUNICATION FORMAT
us as a new enterprise to have the SAPA is delivered via the Safe Position Augmentation for Real Time
strong background of the founders Navigation (SPARTN) format, so use of the services might require
to enter into long-term business the format to be integrated if not already available. SPARTN is an
Sapcorda’s Botho Graf zu [relationships], especially with auto- industry-driven standard for communication of GNSS high-accuracy
Eulenburg motive OEMs, which are the main correction data between service providers and end users. Sapcorda
market,” the CEO said. developed it specifically for IP-based and geostationary satellite
Geodetic high-precision GNSS receivers for professional use have distributions. Modern positioning systems require a combination
continued to evolve over the past two decades. Traditional GNSS has of low bandwidth, accuracy, availability, reliability, and integrity for
allowed navigating mobile objects to an accuracy of about 10 meters safety-critical applications. The SPARTN message format meets those
but is expensive and is prone to inaccuracies and errors. Sapcorda’s requirements and thus represents an evolution of legacy state space
Safe and Precise Augmentation (SAPA) services overcome traditional representation (SSR) formats that have been made available by various
limitations and deliver centimeter-level accuracy in a few seconds. players in the GNSS industry.
With SAPA global services, accuracy improves to a radius of 10 cm or “This evolution combines the advantages of state representation
less. Observation data is acquired by the roughly 300 GNSS reference with state-of-the-art communication protocol fundamentals for GNSS
stations spread across North America and Europe and is passed to data corrections,”said zu Eulenburg.
centers. The data centers calculate and model for each source of error Sapcorda provides three services — SAPA Basic, SAPA Premium,
over the coverage area. The corrections are then delivered via mobile and SAPA Premium+ —and three delivery options: IP-based direct
internet (IP) or L-band geostationary satellites to the receiver — in a and back-end-to-back-end options and L-Band satellite. The IP-based
car, for example — for high-precision positioning. The correction data basic and premium services rolled out for evaluation in Europe and the
is broadcast continuously. United States earlier this year. SAPA Basic provides position accuracy

www.eetimes.eu | DECEMBER 2020